The Week of the Chicken

Dan hates chicken.

When we go out to eat he'll order whatever isn't chicken. I think it's funny, being the health-conscious guy that he is, that he'll order a big fatty, juicy piece of steak before trying out a chicken dish - one of the leanest carnivorous protein options on the planet. So, of course, last week I set out to prove that chicken can be juicy and delicious - not the dried out boring piece of meat he claims it to be.

On Sunday, we went out to Fatoush. It's fun to say, it's fun to eat at because you feel like you've been transported to a foreign Mediterranean/Arabic land of some kind, and it's fun to not have to cook!

Fatoush makes excellent chicken. I ordered the Shish Taouk, marinated chicken breast served with seasoned grilled vegetables and rice (my favorite chicken and rice EVER, simple and delicious). And Dan, in true form, ordered the Beriani, tender chunks of Beef, Lamb or Chicken, grilled Potatoes, Almonds, golden Raisins, Garbanzo Beans, with special spices, in an aged Yogurt Sauce served with Rice - with the lamb of course! He tasted mine and it was true chicken love at first bite.

Then Tuesday I got ballsy and decided to try my hand at some baked chicken. For eight hours I marinated super organic, cage-free, happy, healthy, with lots of friends chicken from Whole Foods (that I paid an arm and a leg for) just to be sure it would be tender and delicious for this chicken hater I currently reside with. The recipe (provided below) is also Armenian, so of course I had to make it since we have decided it's Armenian food month (more recipes soon). The recipe said to grill the chicken, but the cold, misty fog had already rolled in for the evening and there was no way I was going to heat coals for two chicken breasts, so I decided to bake it. BIG MISTAKE.

Who knew I was so bad at baking chicken. I couldn't get the temperature right because my oven is a little bit "special" and I couldn't decide when it was done because I seem to have lost my meat thermometer in the move. So it was really, really done by the time I took it out. Needless to say convincing Dan that chicken is delectable didn't go so well. The marinade is really delicious, though, super flavorful and so so good with lemons from our very own tree, so I recommend it for grilling chicken, fish or lamb...and it's the food of my people so think of me while eating it!

On Friday night, however, we went to Rotisserie Limon (we live in a super diverse neighborhood with things like Peruvian Rotisserie...didn't even know that was a thing). WOW. Mouthwateringly fantastic chicken. Perfectly marinated, perfectly rotissereed, just yum. The sides were a little weird, but it was fun having yucca fries and the sauces (they bring 3 to the table) were really tasty and completely mysterious.

So all-in-all two out of three points for chicken this week. I'm sad to be the weakest chicken link, but I will purchase a new thermometer and try try again. (I, sadly, forgot to take a picture of this one)

Armenian Grilled Chicken Marinade

Ingredients

        1/2 cup olive oil

        1/4 cup lemon juice

        1 teaspoon salt

        1 teaspoon thyme

        1 teaspoon marjoram

        1/2 teaspoon pepper

        1 garlic cloves, minced

        1/2 cup finely chopped shallots

        1/4 cup snipped parsley

        1 1/2-2 lbs chicken breasts, whole or 1 1/2-2 lbs lamb, cut in chunks

Directions

Mix all ingredients together (except meat) and whisk thoroughly.

Put cleaned and dried meat in a large 8 x 11-inch glass baking pan and pour marinade over all, being sure to coat well. Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate in refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours.

Drain meat and grill, basting with marinade until meat is cooked through. Can be baked in a 350 degree oven

NOTE: This is excellent served leftover, cold on a salad!

Cooking Light-ly

Currently, I’m a stay at home woman. I prefer this title to homemaker, stay at home wife (since I’m not a wife), and unemployed (since stay at home woman is a full time job). The last couple of months have shown me the sheer amount of work that goes into being a stay at home woman, the meal planning, the grocery shopping, the cooking, the cleaning, the piles of laundry doing, the trash out-taking (and in San Francisco the recycling and stinky, sticky food compost out-taking), the plumber and painter coordinating, the list goes on and on. I will always have a special place in my heart for the men and women that stay home to ensure the lives of their loved ones run smoothly and with extra benefits like hot dinner when they get home, occasional homemade desserts and little projects completed (like tightening the screws on the dining chairs so guests don’t fall to the floor, not that that happened to us).

Although my time as a stay at home woman hasn’t been without mental breakdowns (one begins to wonder about one’s life purpose when one’s biggest outing involves grocery shopping), I have also enjoyed almost endless amounts of time to dream up new recipes. Unfortunately, lots of time to cook and bake leads to lots and lots of eating at all times and I’m not sure the boyfriend is particularly happy about that. We did join a gym, and I’m about to head to my first tennis lesson (I have to keep up my stay at home woman skills), but the extra cakes and cookies have started taking their toll.

So, I bring you cooking lightly! Here's one recipe that is delicious and won’t leave you thinking you need dinner #2 in order to survive the rest of the night because it is so light.

**Disclaimer: I’m only taking a short break from my graduate studies and my California RN license has yet to appear. Also, Dan is super helpful with house chores, I just happen to be home all day to get it all done!

Chipotle Chicken Taco Salad

(Pic is a little blurry!)

YIELD: 4 servings (serving size: 2 1/2 cups), 249 calories per serving

Ingredients

Dressing:

    1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

    2/3 cup light sour cream

    1 tablespoon minced chipotle chile, canned in adobo sauce (this is spicy, so don’t go nuts and put in the while can…my mouth was on fire with just one, but I’m a little sensitive to the pepper heat)

    1 teaspoon ground cumin

    1 teaspoon chili powder

    4 teaspoons fresh lime juice

    1/4 teaspoon salt

Salad:

    4 cups shredded romaine lettuce

    2 cups chopped roasted skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 2 breasts)

    1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved

    1/2 cup diced peeled avocado

    1/3 cup thinly vertically sliced red onion

    1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

    1 (8 3/4-ounce) can no-salt-added whole-kernel corn, rinsed and drained

Preparation

To prepare dressing, combine first 7 ingredients, stirring well.

To prepare salad, combine lettuce and remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Drizzle dressing over salad; toss gently to coat. Serve immediately.

We served this salad with our fave chips from TJs, the veggie & flaxseed tortilla chips…it makes you feel healthy just looking at ‘em!

Making Cakes

I love making cakes. I love measuring out the ingredients, sifting the flour so it’s perfectly powdery and light, creaming butter and sugar together (and eating a little of it before adding the eggs), even straining the seeds out of homemade raspberry sauce at midnight to make the perfect filling for a birthday cake. Measuring the ingredients, pouring them into a bowl and mixing them together becomes a methodical sugar-and-flour-meditation, ending in wafting aromas of cinnamon and sugar.

I remember making cakes, cookies and breads with my mom. She would let us measure out all of the ingredients, sometimes let us pour them into the silver mixing bowl and we would always get to push the lever into the start position, inevitably creating a cloud of flour dust because we’d chosen too high of a speed.

No matter what’s going on around you, what’s happening (or not happening) in your life, when you bake you get to make it the way you want it - a perfect escape from real life. Two bags of chocolate chips instead of one, sure! A sprinkling of pink sugar on top of your frosted double fudge cupcake, of course!! A peanut buttery filling inside your birthday brownies, yes please! Baking is a deliciously edible piece of personalized and, unfortunately, temporary art.

But the best part about making cakes is using my circa 1980 cream colored KitchenAid mixer. My mother gave it to me seeking more counter space in her kitchen. It’s bulky and heavier than a stack of bricks, the silver band that carries the brand around the top of the mixer is slightly rusted and it rocks back and forth when you mix sticky dough at high speed. But it’s basically a family heirloom and it will run forever. I always look through the Macy’s Home Store flyers and get excited when KitchenAid mixers are on sale and imagine picking out a shiny new brightly colored one with all the attachments, but I could never replace this one. Maybe if it starts smoking and sputtering when it mixes or simply doesn’t turn on…but I’m sure there’s a special KitchenAid mixer repair shop somewhere.

I recently made a carrot cake. I like carrot cake better homemade because then you don’t bit into a mouthwatering piece of cinnamon goodness to find raisins or worse, pineapples, dotting the cake. AND you can smother it in inches of thick homemade cream cheese frosting (the recipe said to do it that way!). And the very best part of making it at home is waking up the next morning and eating a big slab of it for breakfast justifying your choice in breakfast foods by noting the four cups of carrots that went into the batter. That’s way more than your daily vegetable requirement (and probably more than your butter and sugar allotment for 3 weeks).

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

4 eggs

1 ¼ cups vegetable oil

2 cups white sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsps baking soda

2 tsps baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 tsps ground cinnamon

4 cups grated carrots

1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

In a large bowl beat together eggs oils, white sugar and 3 teaspoons vanilla. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a separate bowl and combine with wet ingredients. Stir in by hand the carrots and pecans. Pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until a fork comes out clean from the center of the cake. Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese softened (I just leave it out of the fridge for an hour)

½ cup (1 stick) of butter, softened (I do the same as above)

5 cups powdered sugar

2 tsps vanilla

Beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. 

Gradually add sugar; beat at low speed until creamy. Stir in vanilla.

*The best part of this frosting recipe is there is about ¾ cup of it left after frosting the cake to dip your finger into every time you open the fridge!! YUM!

Worst picture I've taken to date! I really need to work on my food photography...or maybe upgrade to a non-iPhone camera!

The best steak I ever had

Having people over is always a little daunting. You have to come up with a menu that everyone likes, that you want to make, that most parts are easily completed before guests arrive, and of course, a menu that makes you look like the best cook on Earth.

I was invited to Jim’s house for dinner one night (my friend Sam’s, dad) for steak dinner. It was a chilly spring night and steak sounded good, but I didn’t really give it a second thought. We all contributed a side dish, so there were TONS of mouthwatering delights: cheesy potatoes with crunchy corn flakes baked on top, a tabouli-esque salad, my pear and gorgonzola green salad, and the piece de resistance: it appeared to be a blackened, almost to the point of being charred, hunk of meat juicing all over my plate creating a bath for the rest of the side dishes. It almost angered me that this piece of meat was ruining the rest of my meal, so I decided to eat it first to get rid of it.

WOW. 

Hands down the best piece of meat I have ever put in my mouth. It was crispy on the outside, perfectly flavored, juicy on the inside, everything and more anyone ever wanted in a steak and I was enjoying it for FREE. Conversation came to a halt as each person devoured their meal.

So, as I began to create the menu for a recent dinner party at my house, all I could think about was that steak. I had to make it. I needed the recipe. I called Jim, asked if I could have the recipe and let him know it would be published on this blog.

“Nope,” he said, “I can’t give it to you, it’s a secret.”

WHOA.

I have never been denied a recipe. You can even find Niemen Marcus cookies online or the recipe for Mario Batali’s famous gelato in his book.

The only way he would budge is if the recipe wasn’t published. So, I’m happy to say I am the proud owner of the best-steak-I-ever-had recipe (it’s in my head, I can make it for you for a small fee). I made it that night for Dan and his brother and his brother’s fiancé. We all sat in silence as we devoured every last bite. Not a single leftover.

I did make a nice Wheatberry salad I can give you, but sorry, no best-steak-I-ever-had for you!

Farro Salad with Asparagus, snap peas and Feta

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups semi-pearled faro (I used semi-pearled barley…you have to cook it for about an hour to soften it)

12 ounces asparagus, trimmed, cut into 1 1/2-inch lengths

1 8-ounce package sugar snap peas

12 ounces grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup chopped red onion

6 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (I used flat leaf parsley instead)

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup Sherry wine vinegar

1 7-ounce package feta cheese, crumbled

Preparation

Cook faro according to package directions in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until just tender. Drain. Transfer to large bowl, cool.

Meanwhile, cook asparagus and sugar snap peas in another saucepan of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain. Add to farro with tomatoes, onion, and dill. Whisk oil and vinegar in small bowl. Season dressing with salt and pepper. Add dressing and feta to salad; toss to coat and serve.